Joey is excited to be nominated for a Soapy award and takes Rachel to the ceremony. Ross finds himself in a conundrum when one of his (male) students confesses his love for him. Monica comes to terms with the realization that marrying Chandler entails never feeling the rush of meeting a new prospective date again.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Phoebe tells Monica that her late mother taught her to never communicate any fears or doubts to your spouse, and to suppress all your negative emotions and never let them out. Monica suggests that this might explain why Lily killed herself when Phoebe was fourteen.Phoebe: Wait, does this also mean putting out doesn't get you love?
- All Men Are Perverts: Discussed and averted. When Monica expresses some doubts about never with being anyone new, Phoebe says she sounds like a guy. Monica retorts that a guy would be more concerned about never sleeping with anyone new, only to then realize she will never sleep with anyone new. However, Chandler is not at all concerned about never sleeping with anyone new again, as he considers Their First Time with a new woman to be even more stressful than the start of a new relationship.
- Commitment Issues: While fully committed to Chandler, Monica admits the idea of never feeling that rush of being with someone new bothers her. By contrast, Chandler is actually thrilled he'll never be with anyone new again, as he always felt "panic, anxiety, and a great deal of sweating" rather than the rush. Chandler helps her feel better about this, as well as feels anxious about Monica having doubts and talking about the various firsts they'll have as a married couple.Chandler: I was dangerously dehydrated during the first six months of our relationship.
- Continuity Nod: Phoebe notes that she's never really been married, a nod to her Citizenship Marriage to Duncan the ice dancer.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: When Ross confronts the student who "confessed" his love to him for lying and pulling the same trick on other teachers, Ross acts as though he's being cheated on. Which makes it very awkward when two of Ross' fellow professors show up at the end of their argument.
- Overly Narrow Superlative: Rachel is impressed that Joey got nominated for a Soapy, which she calls the third most important soap opera award.
- Sore Loser: Joey gets mad when he doesn't win the Soapy and makes a scene in front of the cameras, despite Rachel encouraging him to practice at acting the part of the Graceful Loser previously. He's still obviously surly when presenting the Best Supporting Actress Soapy.
- Teacher/Student Romance:
- A male student of Ross' claims to be in love with him. Ross turns him down, though gives him a better grade since he believes the student's claims that his crush made him distracted. However, other (also male) students start saying the same thing to him. It turns out the first student has pulled the same thing on multiple teachers to get better grades, making this more like an oddly platonic version of Sextra Credit.
- Rachel mentions that she once had a crush on a teacher that made it hard for her to pay attention during his classes. Apparently she dealt with this by sleeping with the teacher.
